


King of the Court

by vanillaprince



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff and Angst, HEY it's a sports au, Homophobia, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, Strangers to Lovers, and my limited sports knowledge comes into play, more like a lot of angst, or so i think it will be???, where the 104th is unevenly split into two teams
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 10:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2578781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillaprince/pseuds/vanillaprince
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Volleyball and romance was one of the most unlikely of matches, or so Eren eventually learns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	King of the Court

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! wow, i think i finally got the hang of ao3's publishing system (or not, but that is not relevant at the current moment). anyway, here is my first contribution to the snk fandom on ao3. i thought about writing something for some time now, but after some self-motivation and five million pages of apes notes later, here i am. anyway, without further ado, please enjoy this (not really) short prologue!!

Day in and day out, the life of Eren Jaeger was fairly straightforward: wake up, go to school, volleyball, more volleyball, sleep, rinse and repeat. At least, that was how his father dictated it since the beginning of his first day of seventh grade.

Ever since he was eligible to play a sport for school, his father pushed him to commit to a single sport for his entire career until graduation. Many options were presented to him—basketball, baseball, sailing and water polo to name a few—but Eren found little interest in the salty sea air or the possibility of drowning. The possibility of joining the cross country team would not have been a problem at all, for his times in his gym class were always above average. However, running around with a bunch of crummy jock guys hardly sounded all that fun. In fact, Eren was so turned off by the sport that he just asked a classmate of his to grab a few papers for him just for show.

At that point, none of his choices were all that appealing, and his lack of interest only caused his father to become angrier with him. His little scheme about the cross country papers was easily foiled the minute he stepped into the house, so that idea was already out. Eren wasn't about to quickly comply with his father's "I'm-only-trying-to-help-you-with-your-future" demand, but he was also not too enthusiastic about joining by force.

If anything, Eren still had the option of joining the tennis team and play like his sister, so he was not _entirely_ screwed. However, after watching one of Mikasa's school matches a few months prior, he was not entirely sure if he was going to be into the long match days. Having to stick around in the blazing sun all day in order to win a few matches was not something Eren was too enthusiastic about.

Joining a team or not, Eren knew he was in for a long lecture in whatever route he chose.

 _"If you don't make up your mind within the next two days, I'm sending you to St. Maria's Preparatory Academy_ , _"_ his father's voice resonated throughout the course of that evening. 

For the next two days, Eren visited team after team in order to find a something he would be interested in doing. While he would have been more content with joining the chess club, he wasn't presented with that option. It took him until near curfew of the second day in order for him to figure out what he wanted to play: volleyball. Eren didn't have a multitude of reasons for joining, but he did know that it was something he could do for the next few years. The sport wasn't too appealing, but it also wasn't an activity that would bore him to his grave. Everyone on the team looked fairly bearable—save for that one guy with a horrible undercut he had a run-in with—and the coach seemed to be easy to work with. Besides, volleyball did not involve running around with a bunch of wannabe jocks, physical education class try-hards who got rejected from the football team, and actual runners on a three-mile course around who knows where. All in all, everything seemed to work out for him already.

On that same night, the brunet triumphantly displayed the athletic release forms and the volleyball club application to his father at dinner. Despite the repeated "is this what you really want to do?" inquiry from his father during the course of the meal, Eren was still largely content with his decision. After a few signatures, a trip to the sports equipment store, and a talk with several sales representatives, Eren was all set to go. From that moment forward, everything in Eren's life returned to normal. His father's empty threat was not carried out, and he found himself in a sport he could tolerate for the rest of his middle and high school career. 

From middle school until his freshman year in high school, Eren did nothing but practice. Weekends were considered to be supplementary practice, outings with friends were unheard of, and the only way to "relax" from the sport was homework. People at school regarded him as "that volleyball freak" because he played so much, but at the time, Eren hardly cared about the constant name-calling; he finally became _good_ at the sport. While the pain from long hours was evident in his calloused hands and abundance of bruises, it was only a small price to pay for the greatness he achieved by becoming the starting libero on his high school team. Everything appeared to be smoothing out for him, and maybe, just maybe, he thought, things would become relatively normal once more.

\--But his wish would not be granted, he would learn. Everything _was_ relatively normal until one day in sophomore year when his father found him on the family couch running his calloused hands through freshly gelled hair in a heated make-out session with a boy on Eren's volleyball team. Grisha Jaeger would have been content with his son's choices if that boy was a girl, but alas, he wasn't. In fact, what transpired after that was a terrified exit of said boy, multiple door slams, and an hour's worth of lecturing about how homosexuality was a sin that would not be tolerated in the Jaeger household. Everything completely went through one ear and out the other, and to pay for his "heinous atrocities," the teen was graciously given a forceful slap across the face.

* * *

_"Why can't you be a good kid like Mikasa, Eren?" Grisha asked harshly, his words coming across as verbal daggers. "How did your mother ever conceive a sexual deviant fuck-up like_ you _?"_  

 _"I'm not a piece of scum, dad. I still maintain satisfactory grades_ like _Mikasa, play a sport_ like _Mikasa, and still pray and shit like I'm_ supposed to _," Eren shouted back, his sense of reason nearly disappearing. "And you call that being a '_ fuck-up _'? Ladies and gentlemen, we_ definitely _have the world's greatest father in our presence."_

 _"Don't you_ dare  _talk back to me, boy. Why don't you do yourself a favor while you're out fucking every guy out there and think about this_ carefully: **don't** _compare yourself to her_ at all _. You're_ nothing _like Mikasa, you hear me? She's the ideal child and you're just the family embarrassment."_

 _It was right around that point where Eren had enough. "You know what?_ Fuck _you, dad. I'm sure mom is rolling around in her grave listening to your bullshit excuses." Without further words, he stormed out of the room and to his own room._  

 _"Burn in hell, scum," his father shouted, then returning his attention to the day's newspaper in his hand. "Burn in_ hell _."_

 _Back in his room, the majority of his volleyball equipment was scattered all across the floor. Medals were scattered, certificates were uprooted from their frames, shoes were knocked out of their boxes, and uniforms were thrown into all directions of the room. Eren could have cared less if all of his equipment were to be ruined; he_ never _wanted to play ever again. Without further hesitation, he searched for the nearest pair of scissors he could find and grabbed one of his jerseys. Setting himself down in the middle of the floor, he widened the blades of the scissors Just as he was about to cut, he paused for a moment._

_What if he needs to go back to the team? What if his father makes him go back tomorrow after school for another few hours of hell?_

What if he still wanted to play?

 _Setting the device down and releasing his grip from the jersey, he took a few deep breaths._ Think rationally, _he thought. Rising slowly, Eren collected his things and sorted everything into piles based on category. Once sorted, he then swiftly folded all of his uniforms into neat piles. He then transferred all of his piles to the closet, where he opened the door. Finding the closest empty box, the boy promptly piled everything in, shut the box, closed the closet door, and vowed never to lay a finger on any of his volleyball-related past every again._

* * *

His father's temper soon thawed out, much to Eren's surprise. Rather than suggesting more church visits within the week—even though it was suggested—Grisha simply pulled Eren out of his current school and sent him to the church-affiliated school, St. Maria's Preparatory Academy. Even with Eren's repeated insistence on the school being a "safe environment not full of sexual deviants" and the fact that the other boy involved didn't go to his school did little to sway his father's mind.

So on his last day at his former school, he explained to his team that he was transferring as "St. Maria's would allow him to become more in touch with his faith," even though everyone knew that was complete trash and an utter lie. Then again, what could Eren do? He couldn't explain to anyone that he was being pulled out because of his father's issues with homosexuals, so there really wasn't anything else Eren could turn to.   

At three in the afternoon that day, Eren silently walked home with his belongings. Not a word was spoken to any of his teammates, friends or any of the passing teachers. He made sure to take the long way home in order to stall as much time as possible. There really was no reason for him to be early and suffer through another series of curses against his own being. His own father would not have minded him not It wasn't as if his livelihood matter to him, anyway.

His own future didn't matter to him anymore.

He no longer mattered. Why should anyone have cared, anyway? Eren _was_ the "family embarrassment," right?

**Author's Note:**

> oho, who was the mystery guy that was involved with eren? 
> 
> anyway, if you've stuck around until the end, thank you so much for reading!! any comments, criticisms, etc. is highly appreciated!!


End file.
